Ryan Chartrand
Sophomore forward Megan Harrison scored a career-high 29 points as she helped rally the Cal Poly women’s basketball team from 16 points down in the second half Thursday night to beat UC Davis 69-60 in a nonconference game in Mott Gym.
Harrison, fresh off a career-best 24 points a Jan. 27 win against Cal State Northridge, scored more points than any Cal Poly player since 1999.
“It was exciting,” said Harrison, who also finished with seven rebounds in Cal Poly’s third straight win. “My teammates were feeding me the ball and giving me great passes and I was able to finish. I’ve had a lot of confidence lately and I know my teammates have had confidence in me, so I was feeding off that.”
Guard Lisa McBride also scored a career-high 18 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer that gave the Mustangs a 62-59 lead with 2 minutes, 22 seconds to play.
In the first half, UC Davis continually got in the paint for easy looks, shooting nearly 70 percent from the floor and taking a 38-29 lead into halftime.
Early on in the second half, it looked like more of the same as the Mustangs found themselves down 49-33 with 15:40 to play.
But Cal Poly (8-12) began applying more defensive pressure, leading to Aggie turnovers and missed shots, and attacked the offensive glass, answering with a quick 10-1 run that cut the lead to seven points with 11:21 to play. After falling behind 57-47 with 8:35 to play, they went on a 17-2 spurt and took a 64-59 lead with 1:18 remaining.
Cal Poly senior forward Jessica Eggleston, who was recently named Big West Conference Player of the Week, finished with a relatively quiet six points and 10 rebounds, but made big plays down the stretch, including the backdoor layup that put the Mustangs up five as the game wound down.
For the game, the Mustangs outrebounded UC Davis 39-24, including 18-5 on the offensive glass. The Aggies shot 54.5 percent for the game, the highest the Mustangs have allowed an opponent to shoot all year, though they limited them to 38.1 percent in the second half.
Forward Heather Bates led the Aggies (9-13) with 26 points and seven rebounds.
The Mustangs (3-4 Big West) embark on a three-game road trip that starts Thursday against Big West foe Long Beach State. Head coach Faith Mimnaugh said she hopes her team can use its balanced scoring to start attacking opponents.
“We have a great opportunity to play to the strengths we have on this team,” she said. “Just having players that can attack both inside and outside is a real strength for our team. We’re playing really well right now.”